Product Details

welcome!
my name is Jessey Abilba. i deal in various handicrafts made by African artisans such as the Bolga straw baskets and hats, leather bags and sandals, beads, necklaces, drums, artwork on batiks, etc ! I share a shop with two other people in bolga. these pages will feature only the Bolga Baskets for now. i get my baskets directly from the weavers of my village and part of the money generated from the baskets is used to help the villagers send their children to school, and to provide health care and food.

the baskets, known world-wide as Bolga baskets, are
exclusively woven by indigenous people of Bolgatanga which is in Northern Ghana. Bolgatanga literally means soft soil, rocky land. Weaving has been a traditional skill of these people over the years. The geographical land area of Bolgatanga is not fertile enough for extensive agricultural activities. Coupled with an erratic rainfall pattern and generally harsh weather conditions, handicraft activities such as basket weaving, leather work, and pottery are undertaken mostly by the women to supplement their incomes from the subsistence farming activities.